Strawberry Gold
by phoenixreal
Summary: In a new world after the Shinigami Foundation uses nanites to "fix" a broken world, Ichigo Kurosaki finds treasures from the past to help build a future. A chance encounter with a strange woman in need of help lands him right in the middle of a salvage ship called the Gold Experience and in the middle of a struggle to save one young woman from her own father.
1. Chapter 1

**Strawberry Gold**

 **A Crossover Yaoi Fanfiction Novel**

 **Bleach**

 **and**

 **JoJo's Bizarre Adventures**

 **Giorno Giovanna/Ichigo Kurosaki**

 **Beverly L. Anderson and SapphireTou**

 **Rated M**

* * *

Chapter One

The Gold Experience and the Strawberry

* * *

"Why am I awake?" was the first, simple thought that ran through Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi's mind as his eyes fluttered open and he found himself staring up at his daughter and assistant Nemu outside the cover of the cryogenic chamber.

"The levels of nanotechnological upheaval have reached homeostasis, father," Nemu commented as she opened the chamber to let him sit up and rub his eyes.

"Ugh, about time. How long has it been?" he asked.

"Team alpha awoke on the surface approximately twenty years ago and have been integrating with the new local populations, but the total time in cryo-freeze for us has been two hundred sixty-eight years, seven months, and sixteen days," she responded as she handed him a yukata.

Mayuri nodded solemnly as he slipped into the vibrantly colored garment. "And the status of Seireitei?" he asked as he moved to look over the instruments.

"We are still settled at optimal atmospheric altitude to get readings from the entire globe. Nanite levels are down to acceptable levels, and the turmoil they caused has returned to normal. Much of the planet has been overgrown and native populations that were encased in the underground cities have grown into different cultures. We also seem to have a few mutations caused in those born on the planet, Captain Urahara and his team call them Arrancar, as they all seem to be marked by a large, black circular mark on their bodies at some place."

Mayuri brought up the communication link to the surface. Immediately, the screen was filled with the blond haired, eccentric captain of the ground level team.

"Mayuri! Good to see you up! Seems things have gotten interesting in your long sleep. Over two hundred years means things have changed a lot, but some things have stayed the same. We survived, and so did your favorite rival- Speedwagon Foundation is still around down here," Kisuke Urahara informed him, adjusting the white and green bucket hat on his head and smiling.

"Ugh, really. Why couldn't they just die out?" Mayuri growled and pushed his blue hair out of his eyes. It had gotten longer at some point, he couldn't remember when exactly.

"Well, they ran damage control and actually kept panic among the underground populations somewhat down. Though we do have some problems down here, especially among the seafaring folks we've been seeing. Seems like Japan got lucky, and it is actually one of the more habitable areas on the surface world. It looks like Japan, the coastal areas of China, the area of Europe around the Mediterranean Sea, and the southern portion of Africa have habitation zones. The rest…well, there were some mutations," Urahara said with a smirk.

Mayuri narrowed his eyes. "Yes, these altered humans, the Arrancar?"

"Ah, not just that. That's actually what the problem with the uninhabitable zones is. It isn't lack of resources, there are plenty of those, but animals and plants have mutated under your nanites. They are larger, fiercer, and roaming wildly among most the world. The habitation zones are all near coastlines and are surrounding some of the larger bunkers that the Shinigami Foundation built. Speedwagon Foundation has culled some of the areas, but there are unknown animals and plants in there. Then there's the Wandenreich," Urahara said with a deeper sigh. Mayuri snorted and Urahara continued. "Humans with a wish to undo everything we did. They want to reclaim our technological legacy. Deadly people. The other humans we're aware of that are a problem are out of Italy near that habitation zone. A lot of artifacts washed our direction during the storms we caused, and several large-scale salvage ships have been sent here to find technology to rebuild with."

"Any technology still on the surface is useless," Mayuri dismissed with a wave of his hand.

"Not if they have people to put it back together. Don't forget, innovation didn't die, just most of the old Earth. Well, we're alive so that is something," Urahara sighed and glanced behind him.

"We saved the world, so why do you act like we murdered someone?" Mayuri was growing tired of the act Urahara was putting on.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi of the Shinigami Foundation, nearly two hundred seventy years ago, had an idea on how to fix their dying planet. He designed nanites that could be released into the atmosphere that would repair the damage global warming and other manmade disasters had caused. Their rival, the Speedwagon Foundation, had opposed the mission, but in the end the United Nations had sided with the Shinigami Foundation and the nanites were released. Luckily, they listened to the Speedwagon Foundation's warnings and had built underground bunkers in case things went bad. And bad they had gone. Storms raged over the changing planet, and the surface quickly became uninhabitable. Shinigami Foundation, which was based on a technologically advanced city designed to fly, had gone up and above, leaving the alpha team in a secret underground bunker to wake every fifty or so years and check for habitability of the surface. Now, after two hundred seventy years, things had changed much. Everything on the surface was overgrown and in need of rebuilding from the ground up.

"We destroyed the world to fix it." Urahara sighed and then shook his head. "Either way, Karakura and Morioh are well underway. My team and a large contingent from the bunker have taken up residence in Karakura, and Morioh is mostly Speedwagon's people."

Mayuri snorted again. "Speedwagon. At least the old codger is dead by now."

"But the Foundation is strong, and it took the lead in many of the bunker communities, so you will have to show some respect. Oh, I regret to inform you that we believe the United Nations bunker was destroyed. We can't contact eastern Europe at all. It seems like there was a massive earthquake in the region the specialized bunker was located. Most of that area is underwater, and there is a new mountain range where England should be."

"Just as well, the UN was a hassle to deal with," Mayuri muttered.

"They gave leadership, which now we have to do as well as Speedwagon's people. Uh there is one other group to be wary of, and you'll want to send division eleven people with anyone that comes down because of them. They're called the Fomori and we're not sure what they are yet. We haven't caught one and they take their dead when there is a clash, but they're primal and barely what you would call human. Some sort of de-evolution or something might have taken place there." Urahara paused. "I think that's all I have for you at the moment, but just make sure you bring plenty of muscle. Swords work best down here, as you get into close combat quickly if you fight. One of the times I'm glad that Yama-Jii always insisted that we learn the old ways…"

"Indeed," Mayuri said as he downed a cup of coffee Nemu had put down. "Whatever it is, we'll face it. Captain Zaraki will be happy that there will be fighting at least. I'll have a team in Karakura by tomorrow."

"Mayuri, you haven't even woken them. Give them a day or two to come out of cryo for Kami's sake," Urahara grumbled as he tapped off the feed.

Mayuri supposed he should. He turned and typed in the command that was awaken all of Seireitei. He supposed that the Rukongai had grown while they slept too. There had been a lot of people living on the outer edges around the heart of the Seireitei before it was closed up.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Finding "treasures" on the coast had been one of Ichigo Kurosaki's favorite things to do over the last few years. Having been born into the new world that they now lived in, Ichigo didn't remember anything else in order to miss it. He was twenty years old this year, having been born almost immediately after his father had exited cryo-stasis and saved his mother from a beast that was trying to kill her. A thankful woman turned into a dutiful wife and mother, and despite their quick, whirlwind romance, they had been happy together. He had two sisters four years younger than he was, and despite his mother dying when he was nine after being attacked by another monstrous creature, his family was everything to him.

Fascinated by the stories his father told of the "old days", it was no wonder that Ichigo had a fondness for memorabilia of the past. He searched for treasures to take back and show his father since he knew what most the things he found was.

They lived in Karakura, but the best location for finding treasures on the coastal region was closer to the other coastal city that had been built—Morioh. He had met an interesting couple along that area, a man named Jotaro Kujo and his husband Kakyoin. Together they had a son, named Jouta, which was where Ichigo found out about the "thirds" or males that were capable of child-bearing due to some mutation caused by the nanites. Ichigo knew everything that had occurred, of course, being the child of one of the Shinigami Foundation's major people. Well, his father was retired now, and the town doctor for Karakura. Ichigo knew that his own physiology was different, though. His father had warned him no matter what, he wasn't to allow anyone from the Shinigami or Speedwagon Foundations run tests on him. It was essential, but his father refused to explain why exactly it was. He hoped to find out soon, but he'd really had more on his mind with helping raise Karin and Yuzu, his twin sisters, and finding treasures to take back.

Ichigo's expeditions had been successful. So far, they had managed to put in communication between the two cities and managed to get electricity through wind turbines and some water turbines to the cities. Ichigo's discoveries had helped with that.

Today, he was knee deep in the ocean when he heard someone scream. He looked up and around and saw a woman come tearing out of the wood near him. She was wearing a skirt, boots, a crop top, and had bright pink hair cut short on her head. She looked frightened. Ichigo didn't hesitate; he ran right for her to see if he could help.

"No, you idiot, run!" she screamed and Ichigo stopped, seeing her face twist and the world went black with a flash of pain behind him.

Some time later he woke up on what he knew to be ship.

"Look, he woke up, Tiziano," came a voice.

Ichigo blinked and found himself looking up at man with striking blue eyes and hair nearly the same color as Ichigo's orange locks with a black hat. He was lying on his back and he could tell his arms were bound against his back, one on top of the other and tied from wrist to elbow. What had he just gotten into. What kind of name was Tiziano anyway? It didn't sound Japanese. This guy, and the girl from a moment ago were speaking accented tradetongue. Well, Ichigo knew it was English, but it had been called tradetongue in the most recent years as they began encountering people from other parts of the world.

"Who are you? Why…?" Ichigo asked and turned his head to see another man standing behind the girl with pink hair. This one had longish hair that was gray in color and much darker skintone than the other one.

"Tiziano is my name, and my friend is Squalo. You're on our small boat, the Clash. You have the misfortune of having been there when we found Miss Trish here. Now, you belong to Diavolo. The Devil of Italy," he said with smirk.

"Who?" Ichigo asked and tried to move, but found his knees were also bound together. There was no way he was getting up from here.

"These Japanese, they don't understand Diavolo yet," Squalo muttered. "You'll all come under his rule soon enough."

"Look, my father is with the Shinigami Foundation, I'm sure we can work…" Ichigo began but Tiziano snorted and kicked him in the ribs soundly, setting him to coughing in pain.

"Shut up. I don't care about these Foundations. You belong to Diavolo. Squalo, grab the branding iron. We don't want him to forget who he belongs to, now do we?" he commented and Ichigo looked at the girl with tearing eyes. Branding iron?

A few minutes later, he'd been drug to sit up and the back of his shirt pulled down to reveal the nape of his neck. He struggled a bit but ended up being punched for his efforts before one of them pressed a searing hot iron to his neck while the other held him still. He passed out before they removed it, the pain becoming overwhelming before he could imagine it would.

Waking up again, he found himself lying on his belly on the ship. The two men weren't near him so he turned his head painfully to look around. It was a small ship, but obviously made for long distance travel. The two men were the only ones on the ship and they now were talking at the helm. The girl was nearby.

"Hey," he whispered to her. "Why do they want you?"

She looked at him and sighed, her arms crossed over her chest. "My father is Diavolo. He wants me dead, by his own hands, so he can rid himself of any family connections that would hinder him. I'm his one great mistake," she answered with a sigh. "I'm sorry you got mixed up into this. Maybe you'll end up with a good family or something."

"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked with a frown.

"She means that brand on your neck marks you as belonging to Diavolo. You're a slave of his ownership, and you can't run anywhere on this world without being returned to Italy and to him," Tiziano explained as he came back toward him. "You may be lucky, get bought by some nice family who needs a farm hand. Or you could get very unlucky and get bought by some pervert who wants a sex toy to abuse."

Ichigo's eyes widened at the thought. "Your part of the world has slavery?"

"Well, depends on what part you mean," snorted Squalo as he grabbed Ichigo by the hair and tipped his head back. "Huh, as pretty as his face is, I'm voting on the perverts getting hold of him."

Tiziano smirked. "Yeah, always a shame to waste a pretty face, but you never know. Some high-class bitch may need a stud to service her, too," he muttered. "Either way, you're done for. Any escaped slave has a bounty on their head when not owned by someone. So, you escape, you might hide for a while, until someone finds you, then you're going to be found out by someone and drug back home and then…well. Escaped slaves aren't treated kindly. You'll wish for something so mundane as a perverted abuser."

"You're the worst, all of you and my father too!" Trish screamed as they laughed at their two prisoners. "At least Dio doesn't abuse his slaves…" She muttered the last as she looked away from them. Ichigo caught the glare she was given at the words. Now, Ichigo had another name to put with these people. Dio.

"Shut up, we're already a day out of Japan. Crazy bitch took us on a run," Squalo murmured as he headed back to the helm. "But grabbing her and a slave boy? We're going to be treated like kings by the boss when we get home."

"Whenever that is," Tiziano muttered. "First we get back to the King Crimson, put this boy with the rest, and see what's happening with the alliances out here in this pit."

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"Narancia, what do you see up there?" Giorno Giovanna asked from the deck of the Gold Experience, a large salvage rig nearing the coast of Japan. They were perhaps four days from the coast of Japan now.

"Ah, shit, Giorno, you ain't gonna believe this…" the short, dark haired man in the crow's nest said as he peered into the distance with his enhanced spyglass. Narancia Ghirga was the best long-distance viewer that any of them had ever met, and he was an excellent look out in every sense of the word.

Giorno sighed, running a hand over his blond curls above his forehead. "Now what?"

"There's a boat, the Clash." There was no mistaking the silver boat with the painted shark face on the front.

"Shit!" came Panacotta Fugo's voice as he walked up. "What the hell is that pair doing out here?"

"Only one reason for them to be here," Giorno said with a sigh. "The boss's daughter. They're after her just like we are. They couldn't have come out this far alone; that means King Crimson is here close. We must avoid them at all cost."

Bruno Buccellati, the captain of their boat, came up and looked at them. He shook his black hair out of his face, and sighed. "Tiziano and Squalo. Which way are they headed?" he asked.

"Back this way," Narancia said from above. "That means…?"

"They got what they came for. They found the boss's daughter already," Giorno said with a frown, turning toward Bruno with a careful eye. Leone Abbacchio, blue eyes scanning the horizon for the ship that was too far out yet to see, walked up and listened as the others spoke. He put his hands in his pockets and stared into the distance.

"What does that mean?" Fugo asked, turning his own dark eyes on the others.

"We take her back. We know that the boss is just going to kill her," came the voice of their other main member, Guido Mista. He adjusted his blue and white hat over his dark hair and eyed the others.

"But if we go after them, we break with the rest of the gang for good. How can we survive without the boss's backing?" Fugo asked, starting to get a little nervous at what they were talking about doing.

Bruno sighed and looked at him. "Fugo, you know when we set out on this trip that it was to find Trish and keep her alive. We broke with the gang when we took off on our own. We'll be fine. Passione hasn't expanded toward Japan yet. We just have to salvage here for ourselves and find a new party interested in the things we find."

"Besides, you're going to let some girl get murdered just because she's related to the boss?" Mista said with a snarl as he pulled his gun and began to load it. "I can't do that."

"So, what are we doing, then?" Giorno said as the boat became clearer on the horizon to the naked eye.

"Take the girl back and kill those two," Bruno said as he headed back to the helm.

Giorno couldn't argue with that. It was really the only course of action they had open to them now. If they wanted to save Trish, they had to kill the only two people who knew where she was.

On the Clash, the Gold Experience's presence had already been detected. Tiziano glared through his own spyglass at the other boat.

"Who is it?" Squalo asked from the helm. "Are they turning this way?"

"Gold Experience, Bruno Buccellati's ship. I heard he was going independent, but why is he this far out? Could they be following the girl's trail too?" Tiziano asked no one in particular as he watched the other ship turn into an intercept course. "Damn, we've been spotted, and they're coming toward us. Full speed, Squalo, let's try and outrun them."

"In this shit boat?" Squalo exclaimed and snorted with dismissal. "They've got us. And there's more of them than there are of us. We're done for," he continued as he tried to get more speed out of the smaller, and slightly more agile boat. "Buccellati was a _capo_ when he got that salvage boat. That thing is probably all sorts of tricked out by now. He's had that thing for three years already!"

"Just try to outrun them," Tiziano said with a sigh as he stared at his two passengers. The boy was asleep, probably due to the branding still. Trish was watching him with those piercing eyes and taking in every little detail. He'd never seen the boss, no one had, but he had a feeling that his gaze might look something like this girl's.

The sea is unforgiving, and when one ship is so severely outgunned as the Clash was, they had no choice but to attempt escape. However, the Gold Experience was well outfitted and a full salvage boat. Unladen with salvage, the ship moved uncharacteristically fast, and quickly caught up with the smaller Clash. The battle between them was not much of one since Mista had uncanny ability with his pistols. Despite being too far out to make a shot for most, Mista managed to take out both Tiziano and Squalo, dropping them both off the boat into the ocean. The next hour was panic filled as they wrangled the now unmanned Clash and tried to avoid letting the two bound passengers slide into the stormy surf. After another tense hour of work, they had pulled both Trish and the other bound young man into the Gold Experience.

"Thank you, I'm Ichigo Kurosaki," the orange haired boy spoke to them.

Bruno and Giorno took point with communicating with their new arrivals, even though the others had a lot of curiosity. After a round of introductions, they took Trish and Ichigo down to the mess area to sit them down and try and figure out their plan.

Giorno was walking behind Ichigo as they came down and noticed the mark under his hairline. He stopped him and pushed his hair up as the other man fussed at him for being held on the stair.

"Damn," Giorno muttered as he shoved Ichigo a bit to get him going. Things just got more complicated.

"Bruno, he's marked. They branded him," Giorno said as Ichigo sat down by Trish and glared at Giorno. Giorno then went over to him and started checking him over. "And beat the hell out of, did you antagonize them on purpose?"

Ichigo winced as Giorno pulled his arms up and began to feel around his ribs. "They said things to Trish. I couldn't be quiet, ow…" Ichigo muttered as he winced.

Giorno sighed, glad he kept his med kit in the kitchen. "Well, I'll have you fixed up as much as I can," he explained as he retrieved the box from beside a storage cabinet and returned.

Bruno sighed and shook his head. "I've got a branded slave and the daughter of the Devil of Italy on my boat now. I suppose it fits with the rest of this mismatched crew. After all, Narancia's an ex-slave."

Ichigo looked up at that. "Ex-slave?"

"Diavolo's slaves aren't often treated well, and sometimes they're considered damaged goods. They have their brand cut off and they're thrown out, usually to the Fomori," Bruno explained. At the confused look that Ichigo got, Bruno continued. "The Fomori used to be human, but they're wild people now, if you can even call them people. Fugo rescued Narancia, who you haven't met yet. He bought him as he was about to be thrown away to those monsters in rough shape. Narancia was abused and his eye infected. He never got full use of the eye back, but his other one works better than most. He's usually up in the crow's nest. That's a long story, though, and not what you need to know at the moment about your situation."

"What exactly is my situation? I just want to go home…my father will be worried about me, and…" Ichigo began.

"That's not possible." Bruno's words were sharp and left no room for that option. "You will have to wait to return until we're sure it is safe for you to go back."

"What? Why not? Just take me home!" Ichigo winced as Giorno began to wrap tape around his wounded ribs.

"You can't go home as long as the King Crimson is nearby. You'll be picked up again with that brand on your neck. You're safest on the move. Your family is safest with you on the move. The men on that ship, they won't mind collateral damage to get back Diavolo's property," Giorno explained as he finished wrapping the young man's ribs. "A kid like you wouldn't last long with them."

"I'm not a kid," Ichigo huffed. "I'm twenty, thank you."

"You're a kid compared to the rest of us with experience under our belts," Giorno snapped back at him as he tipped his head back to look at a bad bruising around his face and eye.

"Who is this guy anyway?" Ichigo whined despite apparently trying not to.

Bruno nodded slowly. "Diavolo owns part of Italy. There are others in the area who have taken hold of the lands that are habitable as well. Diavolo's Italy is run more like a mafia than a government, and none of us see it lasting for very much longer. There is only so long that a place can be run without real government. The nobles in the area rule in his stead, while he reaps the benefits of being their ruler. They are creatures of decadence and only want to satisfy their own desires." Bruno stopped and glanced at Giorno. "In contrast, another man named Dio has taken hold of other areas like Egypt and areas to the east of Italy. While he's no good man, he at least is a capable ruler of the lands, and he has sons…" Giorno looked up at Bruno's pause.

"I have nothing to say on him," Giorno said as he bandaged Ichigo's left eye. "My father is not my concern. Not like I've ever actually met the man."

Bruno smirked, expecting no less from Giorno about his estranged father. "Now, you, what happened with you getting wrapped up in this?"

Ichigo blinked, feeling odd with his eye covered like this now. "Ah, I actually find treasures, er, relics from the past days. I search the shores and see what I can find and take back to my father and others in the Shinigami Foundation."

"Foundations, we've heard of those," Bruno said with a sigh. "They rule out here, don't they?"

Ichigo nodded. "I guess you could say that. There's no real rulership, but we have a couple towns and we have these Fomori you talk about, and the Arrancar which some of the researchers keep trying to capture, but my father says they should be left alone. Um, my pop is a doctor, but he doesn't work for the Shinigami anymore, he just helps people in our town, Karakura. He's been investigating the changes to people born since emergence."

"Emergence?" Giorno asked as he progressed to wrapping up what seemed to be a badly sprained wrist on Ichigo's left arm.

"What we all call coming out of the bunkers. I was born afterward, but my father was in cryogenic freeze until about twenty years ago. My mother was born in the underground, though," Ichigo explained, grimacing as Giorno finished wrapping his arm up and sat down across from him.

"Interesting how different you see this 'emergence' than others," Bruno commented. "We call it the Opening, and it was a time of constant strife among most people. I was born before the Opening, by a couple years, and it was a miracle my family got out of there with all our lives intact. I suppose that you having the Foundations to organize things helped," Bruno mused.

"It wasn't perfect. The Wandenreich are still a problem that are being dealt with." Ichigo looked up suddenly when the room went silent. "What?"

"Interesting you mention them," Giorno said with a cautious glance. "They have been to Italy and Diavolo is attempting to ally with them."

"My mother…" Ichigo began and then paused. "Um, my mother was one of them. She abandoned them before she met my father. That…that was why she met him. She was living in the wilds, running from her past with them, and was attacked by a wandering beast. Pop saved her." Ichigo paused and almost felt tears again for some reason. Why, he didn't know. "She died when I was nine during another attack by a monstrous beast."

"Alright, you and Trish stay put, I'll be right back. Here," Bruno spoke as he handed both of them a piece of fruit. It perhaps had been apples at one time but with all the changes, they were twice the size of the original fruit and carried a subtle tartness that was pleasant now.

Giorno walked up the stairs with Bruno and stopped at the top. "What do you think?" Bruno asked.

"I don't think he's lying. I say we head toward the island and get him off our boat as soon as we can," Giorno muttered, glancing down the stairs as he heard Ichigo and Trish talking softly. "There's something about him I don't like. We need to put him off and back with his family."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Thirds and the Slavery Institution

"He's been away for a while before," Kisuke Urahara said as he and Isshin Kurosaki tromped through the brush nearing the other settlement of Morioh.

"Never more than a day or so. I know that close to the shore there's a family he has stayed with when weather gets bad, but I can't imagine him being gone this long. It's been three days already," Isshin commented as they came out of the brush to see a small house near the shoreline.

A man sat on the porch of the house with a wide set of shoulders and a white hat with a bill over short, dark hair. He wore a long white jacket over a simple t-shirt and white pants with two belts crisscrossing his lap. His light green eyes were hard set and staring at them from the moment they came up the embankment. From the description, Isshin guessed that this must be Jotaro Kujo, the man that lived here with his husband and infant son. Despite knowing that this family included a third, Isshin had trepidation about speaking with him at length, especially about his own son. There was a second and the door opened to allow a slender man to exit with curling reddish hair. He held a dark-haired baby in his arms that looked to be no more than a year old.

"Jotaro Kujo?" Kisuke asked as they approached. The other man stared but didn't stand from his porch seat. "We came by to talk to you about a missing Karakura boy."

"Only one of your 'boys' comes by here, often, that red-headed kid," Jotaro commented. "He was here a couple days ago excited about finding some pieces of a transmitter. He's not come back?"

"That's not good," the other man said. "I'm Kakyoin, Jotaro's husband. And this is Jouta, our son," he said, indicating the infant. "Ichigo has stayed with us a few times when it got too late to make the trip back to Karakura. He's gone out a few times on the boat with JoJo."

"The boat?" Isshin asked.

"I'm a marine biologist," Jotaro explained, still watching his visitors carefully. "I go out to study the marine life as it is now. Things have changed from the books that we learned with underground before the Emergence."

"Ah," Isshin nodded. "I'm Isshin Kurosaki, Ichigo is my son, and you appear to know of us, at least?"

"By description I recognize the man with the hat," Jotaro said and nodded toward Kisuke. "Ichigo has spoken of him from time to time."

"Kisuke Urahara," Kisuke said with a slight bow. "It is good to meet you and your family as well. You are one of the first successful male birth parents I have yet to see. I believe everyone is referring to them as 'thirds' for whatever reason. A truly unique phenomenon I believe that was wholly unexpected."

Isshin felt himself bristle at the turn in discussion. Talking about thirds wasn't what he came here to do and he didn't want to tell anyone his own discoveries.

"Speedwagon Foundation helped with my birth of Jouta," Kakyoin said. "They're innovative with the new thirds, and we've found that there are female ones as well. Though the process is a bit reversed as the females can impregnate other females and receptive third males. It is interesting how all of this happened. I'm surprised you know so little…"

"Shinigami Foundation is a bit more on the hands-on research aspect. They've taken a couple as experimental subjects. There is some debate as to the ethics of the research," Isshin said through clenched teeth.

"Ah. That explains why you are so reluctant to discuss the fact your son is one of us," Kakyoin said with a smirk. Isshin's face changed to shock. "There's a scent that follows us. We can detect each other for some reason. Non- thirds can't smell it. Some sort of pheromone."

Isshin shifted uncomfortably. "Does he know?"

"I haven't discussed it with him, though my advice is to do so. If your son were to suddenly become pregnant, he would have quite the shock," Kakyoin explained with a shrug of his shoulders.

"He's not active in dating anyone," he said slowly. "But he's missing now."

"There's been missing men and women from Morioh lately. Josuke was just saying that about ten have gone without a trace, all young and able-bodied. There's rumors of slavers rounding up young people," Jotaro said slowly as he thought. "I haven't seen anything out in the shallows, but further out there have been at least three boats sighted. Two are trade and salvage ships, but the largest of them is unknown to me."

There was a silence before it was broken by a call from the direction of the shore. "Oi, Kujo! Trade is open!"

Jotaro stood up and walked toward the shore with his hands in his pocket. "Come, you can ask these men. They are from away from here so they may know something," he said as he sauntered down and away.

Isshin and Kisuke followed the large man down to where a small boat had come into the shallows carrying a few people. Out further, a large repurposed oil tanker was anchored, obviously where the smaller boat had come from. The small boat was loaded with several crates that were being set on the shore. One of the men from the boat took off in the direction of Moriah.

A man with blue hair and a woman with blonde hair both came off and pulled crates up onto the shore. When both stood up straight, Isshin saw the black circles that marred their skin.

"Arrancar," he muttered just loud enough that Kisuke could hear him. "What are they doing with this group I wonder?"

"Risotto Nero takes in anyone he finds useful," Jotaro said as he passed them. "He doesn't let anyone stay that can't pull their weight, though. So, anyone on that ship, the Metallica, they're good for some sort of labor."

"Are there other ships?" Isshin asked as he watched people begin to trickle down from Morioh to look at the goods that the ship had pulled onto the shore. It seemed trade was done with precious metals, gems, and artifacts. He watched several things change hands that he had at home attempting to rebuild at the moment.

"One other that I know, that comes for trade, the Gold Experience. Similar, from the western areas around Italy like this group. They know each other but don't seem to be friends," Jotaro informed them as they waited to see who came toward them.

The blue haired Arrancar came forward, leaving the others behind. "Yo, Kujo. New friendlies?" he called as he approached them.

"You met the redheaded kid last time you were here, the one that goes treasure diving in the shallows. This is his father. Kid went missing. You lot seen anything?" Jotaro asked as Nero came up behind the Arrancar. Jotaro motioned to them. "Grimmjow is the Arrancar, and this is Nero, captain of this ship," he said as he motioned to the other man.

Isshin was taken aback for the slightest moment at the man's eyes. They had black sclera and red irises. A variation but a coloration that was becoming more common among people on the surface. There were eight others, and his son, who shared that coloration at times of great stress, though the iris was gold rather than red. This Nero appeared to have permanently colored eyes. He was tall and slender with long dark hair pulled back.

"A missing young adult? You may never see him again, I fear. The King Crimson is in these waters," Nero stated as he stopped and crossed his arms.

"King Crimson?" Isshin asked.

"A slaving freighter from our area, near old Italy. They have other reasons to be here, no doubt, but on the way, they'll collect slave stock." Nero glanced down to the sea and back to the others. The trading was going well it seemed as he looked amused by it. "Sorry to say, if your boy got tagged by them, he's as good as dead."

"But he's…" Isshin started then stopped, not continuing.

Nero smirked. "Ah, he's one of us, eh? One of the ones who has started to change. Not quite an Arrancar, but closer than the other humans." Nero's keen eyes shifted to where Kakyoin stood with the infant clutched in his arms. "Maybe even a third like Jotaro's man, huh?" Isshin tried to school his expression but failed at it. "Yeah, prime stock. Those go for the highest prices in the slave markets. Your boy is gone if that's the case. He won't be able to hide from the scanning instruments they have on there."

"But we don't know if he's there for sure," Kisuke commented, looking between them.

"True, maybe got picked up by Buccellati," Grimmjow said with a thoughtful expression. Nero glared at him. "Hey, I know you don't like the guy, but it is possible. Last time you met up for any time was in Taiwan. Maybe we'll meet on the way back. But I can't see Buccellati keeping anyone on board that don't want to be."

"Hate to admit it, but you're right," Nero muttered. "He even kept those females that thought they could buy their way onto the boat with showing their breasts, nice or not. Sex is not a commodity on my ship, and that's all they knew how to barter with."

Grimmjow snorted. "They coulda learned other work. They couldn't help having learned to use their bodies to get what they wanted," he murmured as they watched the people begin to leave with their trades.

"You looking at anything?" Nero asked Jotaro.

Jotaro held up a datacard and smirked. "Music. Ten hours. Heavy beat. What'll it buy me?"

Nero's eyes lit up as much as the nearly black orbs could. "Anything," he said and reached for it. Jotaro pulled his hand back and walked down to see what exactly had been brought ashore.

After another twenty minutes, Jotaro had a stock of infant clothes, a mixture of toys and computer datacards, and what looked like a random box of parts for a computer. Nero closed up, everyone pulling things back out to sea and to head on to the next port, which would be Karakura now that they'd finally opened it further north. Isshin was left with more worry than he began with.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo wasn't sure what to think about all that had just happened. To be honest, he didn't want to even think of moving from where he sat right now. He ached and hurt in all sorts of places from the beatings he'd taken from the other ships, and now to find out what was going on with the mark on the back of his neck and what it meant…

He was startled when someone seemed to suddenly be next to him sniffing him. He gasped and nearly fell backward off the bench he sat on to see a blond kid in what looked like a wolfskin cape sniffing him. He had vivid purple eyes and they glittered in interest. Trish was staring as the boy went from sniffing Ichigo to sniffing her just as a woman came in from the back entrance to the dining area.

"Wonderweiss, what are you… oh new people!" she said. Now that Ichigo could see her, she wore a green crop top and skirt and had almost as green hair. She smiled at them and ruffled the blonde-haired kid's hair, Wonderweiss apparently.

"New, good," the blonde said and then wandered to sit down on the end of the table. Ichigo looked up to see the one named Fugo come down from the deck. He grabbed a tin cup and poured something into it before sitting down.

"Hey, Nel, what's doing?" he asked the green haired woman.

"Nothing much, I was coming up to see what had been going on, felt a bit bumpy downstairs for a while."

"We were saving these two from the Clash. Those two are fish food now," Fugo said and sipped his drink.

Nel nodded. "Who do we have here, then?" she asked and smiled at both Trish and Ichigo.

"I'm Diavolo's daughter, Trish," she said to Nel. "I'm the cause of all the trouble with him," she gestured to Ichigo.

"Um, yeah," Ichigo said with a shrug and rubbed the back of his neck where it was still sore. "I got branded by those guys on their boat, and I'm from near here. I ran onto her on the shore where I was searching for stuff in the water."

"And your name?" she said with a smirk.

"Oh, sorry, Ichigo."

"Itsygo and Trish," she said then turned a bit red. "Oh, sorry, sounds like I can't say your name quite right. Oh well. Itsygo it is!" she got up and patted Wonderweiss on the back. "Come on, let's have a look up top, you can say hi to Narancia."

Wonderweiss got up and followed her as she took the steps up toward the deck.

"So, what's the deal with him?" Ichigo asked as he watched them go.

"Him?" Fugo said almost wistfully. "Narancia found him one night. We were in Greece, Buccellati, Narancia, and me, and we made camp. Felt funny, like being watched, y'know? Narancia went and looked around, see if we were in the path of a Fomori pack or something, and when he came back, the boy was following him." Fugo shrugged and looked at Ichigo. "We heard some movement, and we knew that we could be close to Fomori territory, can't really tell with them since their borders change by the day. But he had him behind him." Fugo picked up his cup and took a drink. "Kid was wearing animal skins and clothes he'd scavenged, looked like, and had this makeshift sword. Narancia said that he'd sniffed him, like he did you just now, and obviously he wasn't Fomori. He knows a few words, but not too many, and he knows his name. And well, he was wearing clothes, so that's something. He still growls when he hears the word Fomori. Buccellati thinks that maybe his family was killed by the Fomori, and he was young. He got away and was living on his own. So now we keep him on board with us."

Ichigo was quiet for a long time before he spoke again. "These Fomori, you said that Narancia was being given to them." His hand went to the back of his neck to rub against the brand again that still hurt quite a bit. "They're not good, are they?"

"See, when a slave reaches the end of their worth, sometimes they'll cut off the brand and they're caged up and set out to be given to the Fomori," Buccellati said as he returned and sat down again. He looked at Fugo who looked memory fogged. "They're cannibalistic people who have lost their humanity and everything that ever made them human. They travel in packs like animals and prey on anyone who gets in their way. They physically look different, jagged teeth, and they even litter like animals. Not all infants reach adulthood because they dominate each other from birth. Sometimes, used up slaves are given to them in order to keep them sated, if you will."

Another silence descended on the room before Fugo spoke up again. "You don't know Narancia much yet, but he's a handful. I guess I'm the only one that can handle him at his worst, and even I don't know exactly what all happened to him. He was in a little cage, eye badly infected, and covered with other wounds. He'd been abused terribly. They let me have him almost for free. I took him back and we got him healthy again. His eye never healed, but seems his other one took over for him," Fugo said with a sly smile. "We fight as much as we fuck," Fugo said this with a smirk. "Which is to say a lot of both because he's a fuckin brat. He don't know when to shut up and he don't know how to turn off the nightmares. So, we keep ourselves busy."

Ichigo nodded, knowing that these people had been through a lot more than he had so far in his life. He supposed in a way he was a "kid" to them since he'd been safe in Karakura most of his life. Well, Karakura and the bunker. Either way, he'd been around others and family, where these people had been out in the world.

"But that's a whole other story," came Giorno's voice. "We should show our guests to their quarters for the night and while they're on board."

Ichigo looked up and saw the other man waiting with a look of mild annoyance. He didn't think this guy liked him at all, he thought to himself as he limped after the other young man and Trish. He had to give it to those guys, they knew how to lay down a hell of a beating on a person and not kill them. Of course, now they were dead and Ichigo wasn't sure how to feel about that. Despite what they had done to him, he wasn't sure he would have put a death sentence on their heads. Of course, it wasn't like he could do much when he was just along for the ride.

They passed out deeper into the ship and came to a doorway. "This is the bath area. We have co-ed bath facilities," Giorno said as he pushed the door open. Ichigo blinked because there was someone inside already, a shorter man with black hair and his back to him. From where he stood, Ichigo could see a horrible scar on the back of his neck in the same place that he himself had been branded. He assumed this was the guy Fugo was talking about. He glanced over and continued his bathing as Giorno closed the door again.

"They just built some bath houses near Karakura and Morioh, sento-style they were called my dad said, and they look kind of like this, not co-ed though," he commented as he glanced at Trish who was blushing mildly.

"Why co-ed?" Trish said as they walked further from the baths.

"Saves space and water," Giorno commented as they came to another door that he pushed open. Inside was a room with bunks built into the wall. "Here we are. Pick a spot and have a rest. If you need anything, find one of us, and there's others on the ship too, so don't be surprised by other people popping in and out. There are thick blankets at the end of each bunk; it gets cold during the night. You shouldn't be disturbed while sleeping, though."

With that, Trish and Ichigo found themselves alone in the quarters and wondering exactly what was going to happen next.

"I think I just want to go home," Ichigo commented as he fell back into a bunk, wincing from the various aches he still had. After some time, both of them had fallen into deep sleeps.

Ichigo woke during the night when he heard a noise. Half asleep, he found his way out of the room and into the doorway of another room where the one named Narancia was sleeping. He was suffering a nightmare it seemed. Ichigo was about to go in and see if he could help when he saw the blonde boy move up onto the bed and nuzzle with him, licking his face gently until he calmed. He saw that the green haired girl was there too, apparently summoned by the noise as well. She leaned over and ruffled Wonderweiss's hair for a second before she turned away. Ichigo had no idea what to think about this ship, but he was sure that life was more interesting for it.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"Aw, come on, can't I just pick one of the pretty boys out and play with him a little bit? He'll be mostly intact when I'm done," the woman with white hat emblazoned with the wheel symbol whined to one of the King Crimson's men. Bambietta Basterbine was one of the Wandenreich that was aboard the large slaver ship at the moment. Her interest had been piqued by the fresh slaves that were being held below deck.

Secco, a man who could only be described as being primal in nature, glared at her through the leather mask he wore. He wore a bodysuit of leather that covered most of his body, and left an opening for his eyes, nose and mouth, but not much else.

"You don't touch the merchandise or there will be problems." He smirked at her. "You don't want problems, now do you?"

Bambietta, despite being one of the tougher of the Wandenreich, winced at that smirk. Yahweh didn't want them to piss off these guys, so she backed down. Even as much as she wanted to take out some of her sadistic energy on someone, she didn't want to mess with these guys. Slavers, especially though that didn't care about how they were perceived, were a tough lot. Plus, these two on the King Crimson were rather creepy, and she'd come on board with their resident creep Giselle. She seemed to be fascinated by what happened.

Yahweh wanted an alliance with this Diavolo, and Bambietta was beginning to see why. The man was cruel and powerful. She glanced down at the slave pens and smirked. She really did want to play just a little with one of those boys. Just a bit. But she wasn't going to push these guys too far. Something told her that the other one, the one named Cioccolatta, would gladly see her an any of them dead, or worse.

Secco headed back up to the deck but Bambietta walked around the pens. They were simple cages with cots lining the outside edges. Right now, they had collected quite a few from the area, ten to be exact. She wasn't sure why they liked to pick up local slaves as they moved along, but she supposed it was a good source of information for the areas they went into. Fresh sources of good slaves also had to be found as their own sources dwindled back where they had come from.

"Why are you doing this to us?" asked one of the women in the cells, a young woman with lighter colored hair and large breasts.

"I'm not doing anything," Bambietta said with a smirk. She turned and headed up to the deck again herself.

Inside the cell, Orihime Inoue, from Karakura glanced over at her fellow Karakura captives. Chad Yasutora and Keigo Asano were both equally as unsure of their futures as they watched the strange woman leave. One of the others, a woman with pink pigtails named Riruka sighed and glanced at a tall man with long brown hair named Kugo. They had been outside of Karakura when they were captured by these slavers. Orihime sat down on one of the cots and glanced at the next cell where several people from Morioh had been placed. Anne, Toshikazu Hazamada, Aya Tsuji, and Ayana Hirose were silent as they had been captured before those in the neighboring cell. They had lost most of their hope that they would ever leave the ship they were on. The last one, an Arrancar named Illfordt Ganz sat close to the door and waited for anything to happen.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The Raiding Party and Those Waiting

* * *

Morning came far too early for Ichigo's liking as he and Trish were awakened by a knock on the door. Breakfast, no doubt, would see them encountering even more interesting individuals on the ship they now traveled.

"What do you think they'll do with us?" Trish asked as she sat up on her bunk and looked over at Ichigo.

"I don't know that they'd do anything with us," Ichigo told her as he stood up and stretched. "They seem to be good people, and I think they'll take me home."

"I wish I knew what I'll do. With my father after me, I don't know where I'll go," Trish said with a deep sigh.

There was a pounding on the door again. "Breakfast, come on," came a voice they were unfamiliar with.

Trish and Ichigo both headed to the door and found whoever it was gone. They went back the hallway they had taken the night before and found their way to the kitchen area. There were people there they were unfamiliar with and it was noisy already.

"Guys, welcome our new friends," Bruno said from near the counter.

A really tall man with an eyepatch sat at one end of the table and a sleepy looking man with brown hair sat at the other. Beside the second man was a girl with light green hair. She was short and very petite. The tall, lanky man smiled a broad grin and looked at the pair of them.

"Well, if it ain't a couple pretties. I'm Nnoitra, and down at the other end is Cayote Starrk and his little sister, Lilynette. I'm guessing you met Bruno and those boys already, though. Yo! Narancia, what you doing up so early? I thought Fugo was on watch last night, shouldn't you be cuddling?"

Ichigo looked up to notice that Narancia had come into the room. He stuck his tongue out at Nnoitra and grabbed a piece of fruit before sitting down at the table.

"Yeah, he just laid down to get some sleep. I thought I'd come get breakfast. We don't have to be together if we're both off duty," Narancia said with snort. Nnoitra smirked at him but continued with his breakfast, eating quickly.

"Gotta eat and move 'round here," he said to Ichigo. "I'm lucky, I beat the girls today."

"The girls?" Ichigo asked as Nnoitra stood up and headed up the stairs out of the kitchen. Just as he left two more figures entered the room to get food, a blonde woman with a severe look and a dark-haired woman with pigtails.

"Newbies?" the dark-haired girl asked as she flopped in the seat beside Ichigo. "I'm Menoly, this is Loly. Were you two on that ship we went after yesterday?"

"Yeah, I'm Trish and that's Ichigo," Trish said from Ichigo's other side as she watched the newcomers.

"You look beat to hell," Loly said to Ichigo as she sat down across from him. "By the bandages, looks like Giorno got ahold of you. Where is he?" she wondered as she looked around.

"Hasn't come out yet," Bruno commented as he sat down at the end of the table where Nnoitra had vacated. "He's in one of his moods again."

Ichigo's head was spinning a little from all the motion and the people. He grabbed a piece of fruit and wondered if Giorno would be coming for breakfast. He thought he was interesting and of course as another student of medicine, Ichigo wondered what interesting things he'd seen in his travels. He looked up to see the object of his thoughts enter.

"Good, someone summoned you for breakfast. There's a lot of people that come and go, so best to get here early." Giorno paused as he walked behind Starrk. Ichigo noticed that he'd fallen over asleep in his chair. "Cayote, don't sleep here, go up on the deck and get some air or go to your room," Giorno told him with a shove to his back.

"Ah, I'll go," Starrk said as he sat up in the chair. Beside him, the green haired Lilynette stood up and stretched.

"Same. I'll make sure he sleeps somewhere appropriate," she said as she poked him in the side.

The two of them headed up the stairs to the deck and Nel came down them followed by two men. They were rather awkward seeming men, one tall and thin, the other wider and rotund. She was talking to them as she walked.

"There is no reason that they'll come this way, Pesche," she told the thin one.

"But what if they do?" the rotund one asked.

"Dondochakka, I think they have other concerns than our ship," she told him.

"Who?" Bruno asked as the three came and sat down.

"King Crimson. She's sailing roughly parallel to us; has been for a while," Nel told him. "These two are convinced they'll attack us, but I don't see a reason."

Bruno frowned and looked thoughtful. Ichigo could tell that he was thinking on what had just been said, and not in a passing manner. So, it was possible for this other vessel to attack them.

"Wasn't the ship we were on from the King Crimson?" Trish said with trepidation.

"It was, but there would have to be something connecting us to that. I doubt the Clash has even been missed yet. But just in case, we'll alter course and see what the King Crimson does. If she stays with us, we'll known there's a problem. I'm confident in our ability to defend ourselves, even from that ship. We're a formidable ship on our own."

"Still, would they come after us?" Ichigo asked, hand creeping to the back of his still aching neck where the brand throbbed.

"Not unless we gave them a reason," Bruno told him. "Don't worry, we're not going to let them get ahold of you."

"You said that they were a slaver ship from around Italy. Why are they here?" Ichigo asked, wondering what had brought the ship all the way to Japan.

"Me, I fear," Trish said with a sigh. "I ran from home as soon as I found out that my father was looking for me. I took a transport ship from India to Japan. It seems like I didn't run far enough away…"

Bruno nodded. "I don't think there is such a thing as far enough away from him. My guess is that the Clash is supposed to rendezvous with them soon. They will be waiting for Trish to be brought on board. Still, why they're so close to the coastline…"

"Wait, if they're a slaver ship, what if they've picked up people here?" Ichigo gasped with the sudden realization. "Would they do that?"

Thinking about it, Bruno was sure of the answer to that. "They'll have taken anyone on board they could find that was young and in good condition. Diavolo is running out of people to enslave, so his enterprises have been working steadily east."

"If there's people on that ship that are from Morioh or Karakura, we have to help them! We have to get them off!" Ichigo clenched his fist and scowled hard at the table.

Nel dropped into the seat beside Ichigo. "That would take a full-scale raid on their boat. Could we do something like that?"

Giorno scoffed. "Of course not. We're not putting ourselves in danger for this. The King Crimson is—" he started but Bruno put a hand on his arm.

"We can't just leave those people there and go back home knowing what's waiting for them." Bruno knew that Giorno cared, he was just worried about them.

Licking his lips, Giorno sighed sharply. "I suppose you're right. Without Tiziano and Squalo, they're down two people. There can't be that many on board running it if they're expecting to take back slave cargo."

"So, this guy, this Diavolo, he wants to conquer other places? Not just control his area of Italy?" Ichigo wondered as he ate the fruit he'd picked out thoughtfully.

Nel patted him on the back and grabbed a piece of fruit for herself. "We'll go up and keep an eye on them," she said and headed up the stairs followed by the other two that had come down with her.

Bruno nodded. "He wants to establish new slave trade pipelines with the Wandenreich. He seems to think he can secure an alliance with them."

"The Shinigami Foundation and the Speedwagon Foundation won't let that happen," Ichigo stated and crossed his arms, wincing at the pain that lance through his wrist.

"Diavolo is ruthless. He won't let anyone stand in his way," Bruno explained.

"No matter what Diavolo intends, our problem now is getting those people off the King Crimson. If I remember correctly, Cioccolatta and Secco were stationed on there. They might be the only ones on it right now," Giorno crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe. "If we are going after them, we're going to have to be smart about it."

Bruno nodded and chewed his lip thoughtfully for a minute. "A ship that size, they could handle, what…thirty passengers?"

Giorno nodded. "Easily thirty, more if they have cells built into the place to keep their captures."

"What can we do to get onto a boat like that? Won't we be noticed as soon as we get close?" Ichigo asked as he adjusted in his seat.

"We'll have to bank on them not expecting us to actually try and get on the boat," Bruno mused with a frown.

"Are they heading back already, or are they staying around here?" Giorno asked.

"I'll ask Nel, see what she's seen," Bruno headed up the stairs to find out what direction the other ship was sailing in.

"They could be empty," Trish told Ichigo softly. "They could have decided not to pick up people here."

Giorno shook his head. "I doubt that. Though they would have been smart about it and kept to grabbing people that were away from the towns at the time. Whoever they grabbed will be able to work for some reason."

"Do they really use a lot of slaves like that?" Ichigo asked, rubbing the back of his neck again and wincing at the pain from the brand.

Giorno nodded. "Diavolo believes in the idea that the weak should serve the strong. So, slaves are those that he considers weak and need to be controlled. The nobles that run different areas of Diavolo's lands have slaves for all parts of their operations. They're often sacrificed to make forays into the thick of the wilds." Giorno sighed, looking up as Bruno came back down. "Well?" he asked.

"The King Crimson is stationary. I think they're waiting for the Clash. It won't take them long to figure out something's happened to them," Bruno explained as he came and sat down at the table again. "That puts them about a day out of the coastline of Japan. We have no way of telling if, and how many, people they have on board."

"We'll have to send a small boarding party over," Giorno sighed, stepping aside as Loly and Menoly got up and headed back to the rooms.

"I should go," Ichigo said with a decisive nod of his head.

"Now, hold on, you shouldn't be anywhere near that ship!" Giorno glared at the back of his head.

"I can help, though, if there's people from Karakura and Moriah on there, who says they're going to trust you guys any more than the guys that have them? I can make sure they know we're the good guys!" Ichigo didn't say that he wanted to show that he, too, could be useful. He hated that he'd been rescued like a damsel in distress already by these people.

Bruno silenced Giorno with a look. "He has a point."

Giorno sighed and shook his head. "I'm going to, someone has to keep an eye on him," he mumbled almost too low to be heard.

"We'll send Nnoitra, Starrk, Mista, and Leone," Bruno said. "I don't see any of them turning down the chance to free some captured slaves from the King Crimson. I'll go up and talk to them. We need to do this quickly if we're going to pull it off while they're anchored out there."

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Grimmjow wasn't looking forward to having to hide out on the ship while they put in the trade with the Shinigami town. Karakura was thick as thieves with those that wanted to "research" how the Arrancar came to be. From what he knew of the others who had been captured and managed to escape, the researcher on the floating city of Seireitei was crazy and unscrupulous. Since they had awakened from their slumber, being an Arrancar had gotten a whole lot harder.

The Arrancar, and the _Gaki_ actually, were both products of the world. Both had been created through a mixture of nature and the nanites released to fix the planet. The Arrancar had been affected in a different way and had retained their humanity where the _Gaki_ had not. Still closer to animals than normal humans, the Arrancar were pack based like their _Gaki_ cousins. They, however, did not have the same inclinations of violence.

Grimmjow leaned over the railing and watched as the non-Arrancar helped with the movement of the crates to the shore. People were already gathering to see what was going on. A short way in the distance, he could see the beginnings to the edges of the town.

"What's on your mind?" a voice from behind him interrupted Grimmjow's thoughts.

He turned to see Formaggio standing behind him. "Just thinking about things."

"Like what?" he asked, leaning backward against railing.

"Just the state of things over in the town. Don't like not being able to go on a run," Grimmjow responded.

"Yeah, but don't want you or anyone else to get snatched up. I dunno what I'd do without you Arrancar on the ship, especially you or Luppi."

Grimmjow snorted at the name. Formaggio smirked. "Why is it that you hate Luppi so much anyway?"

"Little bastard took my rank," he answered.

"You've said that before, what's that mean anyway?" he asked.

"Arrancar are ranked according to power or ability. Tia ranks high because of her smarts, but some of us rank based on our physical power. That's why I hate Ulquiorra so much too. Can't seem to defeat that smug emotionless bastard."

Formaggio nodded. "Okay, I get it, but you know who I sleep with doesn't change who I'm friends with," he said and ran a hand over his head.

"Mates aren't like just normal partners, though. We mate for life in some cases, so a chosen mate like you chose Luppi makes a difference. I don't know how to explain it better. We're more animal and pack orientated than you normal humans." Grimmjow sighed and thought again about how he would have been willing to kill Luppi given the chance no matter his friendship with Formaggio.

"Well, I guess you're outta luck here on this ship, hmm? Or you interested in someone here?" Formaggio asked with a smirk.

Grimmjow shook his head. "Nah, thought about going to the other boat, though, see if there's some others on there that might be compatible with me. None of the Arrancar on this boat are my type."

"What is your type?" Formaggio wondered, looking out on the shore. It looked like quite a crowd had gathered while they were talking.

"Huh, don't know that I know," Grimmjow muttered. "Just know they ain't here."

"What do you think Risotto would say if you wanted to go to the Gold Experience?" Formaggio leaned with his back against the side of the ship.

"He won't care, but I imagine he won't go out of his way to help me leave. I'll have to find my own way, I guess," he sighed and looked back onto the boat to see if anyone was milling around above deck. It looked like Tier and the girls had all stayed below.

Formaggio nodded. "Yeah, I can see him being like that about it. If you did leave, I'd miss having you around."

"I'm just afraid that either Luppi or Ulquiorra are gonna say the wrong thing to me, and things are going to get nasty. Risotto don't want no infighting among us, and I just can't guarantee that it won't happen with those two." Grimmjow watched as the crowd began to thin and people began leaving the shoreline with their trades. "I know myself enough to know that one of these days, I'm gonna hurt one of them, or get myself hurt trying."

Formaggio gave a long sigh. "Guess you're right about that. To see you or Luppi get hurt would be a shame. And you can't be useful if you're hurt on the ship. I don't think Risotto would like that too much."

Grimmjow wondered exactly how much patience he had left for those two. He would say his feelings toward them was barely contained rage, and one day it was going to blow. He watched as the boats got loaded up by the humans on their crew. It would have been faster if he'd been able to go down there, he knew. He looked up at the sky that was starting to cloud over.

"I think I'm gonna talk to Risotto about switching boats. I just don't know how he was going to continue to cope with the two of them. Better I get out of the situation than do something dumb," he glanced out to see the boats were almost back to the ship by now.

"What if the other ship has people you can't get along with, too?" Formaggio asked, looking out on the incoming boats. It started to rain on them finally as thunder sounded in the distance.

"Then, I'm screwed, and I might as well go back to roaming the wilds to try and kill _Gaki_ who get to close." Grimmjow pushed back and walked over to help pull the crates back onto the ship.

He'd decided, though, already. The chances of finding a mate were higher if he went to the other boat because he knew that he didn't have compatibility with anyone on this ship. He tolerated some of them, but besides Formaggio, he didn't have any close ties to anyone.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Karin and Yuzu were interested when someone came into the town and announced that there was a trading ship at the port. They both wanted to see what they had and what they could trade for. They looked up to see the Shinigami people coming out to do some trading as well. They ran and caught up with one of the new arrivals to Karakura, a redheaded guy named Renji that was pretty fun to hang out around. There had been a lot of new people added to the population of the previously small town of Karakura.

They saw the medical woman, Retsu Unohana, with a box in her arms. Karin thought she had the nicest hair, long and braided down in front of her.

"It should be safe if we go with everyone, right?" Yuzu asked, obviously worried about people that were missing from the town.

"Yeah, no one is going to bother us with so many people around. What did you bring to trade with?" Karin looked at Yuzu and held out her own satchel of parts she'd collected over the last few weeks.

Yuzu opened the bag at her hip and showed off a bunch of iridescent shells. "I found these last time we were at the shore. They're all in tact even. None of them are broken."

"That should get you something. Look, here we are. Wow, a lot of people came to trade," Karin said as they approached the crates that had been brought ashore. There were probably twenty or more people, which from as small a place as Karakura, was a lot.

Karin and Yuzu walked up beside Unohana to see what she was trading. It looked like she had an assortment of small saplings and seed packets.

"I was wondering if you could use these, we have more than we can use," Unohana told the blond-haired man standing behind a crate.

The blond, a man named Melone, smiled and nodded. "We can definitely use these. Molto bene!"

Karin and Yuzu watched a few other transactions happen as they looked through the stuff in a couple of crates. They heard someone else talking.

"Did you hear about the boat that washed up on shore? It was silver with a shark painted on it."

"I heard it already got bought by someone in Moriah," the other person answered.

"You can't just say it any way you want!" Karin heard, looking over to see a man with blue ringleted hair arguing with Renji over a crate. He looked rather upset and Renji just looked confused.

"Ghiaccio, stop picking fights with the locals!" Melone yelled down at them.

Yuzu showed Melone her shells. He agreed to trade for them if she found something she liked. She looked through the crates until she found some treasures of various types from far off places to trade for her shells. Above them the sky began to cloud up as they traded.

"Looks like rain is coming!" Melone shouted and started putting away the wares. "Before I leave, do you girls know if there's been an Arrancar around here with blond hair? Kinda long?"

Karin shook her head. "No, but we've got people missing too from out city.

Melone sighed as he put the lid back on the crate. "I was afraid of that. With the King Crimson in these waters, that's not good for people that might be missing."

Karin and Yuzu waved as they headed back with the large crowd of people to Karakura. Thunder rolled in the distance, so it looked like Melone was right about the rain. They ran to their house as quickly as they could.

Inside, Isshin didn't like what he was hearing. "Who is missing now?"

"Orihime, Chad, Keigo, and from the outer edges of town, Riruka and Kugo," Kisuke said with a sigh. "They're nowhere to be found. It isn't like there's a lot of places for them to disappear to. And it is suspicious with what Nero said about that other ship being near the coastline."

Isshin leaned back in the seat and looked up. Karin and Yuzu came running in from outside as a rain shower had suddenly started.

"Anything, Pop?" Karin asked expectantly.

"Nothing yet, but we're still looking." He reached out and patted her on the arm.

Yuzu looked at Karin, then between Isshin and Kisuke. "I heard there were others missing too."

"Now, we don't want to panic anyone," Kisuke said with a gentle smile at the two sixteen-year-olds. "Just seems that we're having a few people that aren't where they should be."

"Yeah, but it's scary! All the others are staying in the town, and we're not going to the shore by ourselves anymore," Yuzu exclaimed, shaking her hair out of her face.

Isshin gave them a strained smile. "I know it is, but if you stay near the town center, you should be fine. We still don't know for sure what's happened to any of them."

Yuzu looked tearful again. "Are we ever going to see our brother again?"

He sighed, putting his hand on her arm gently. "We'll see him again. Just believe that we will. Everyone's looking for the people that have gone missing."

"What if they don't find anything?" Karin asked, looking at her father seriously. "What if they're gone?"

"Now, now, let's not jump to conclusions, we don't know all the facts…" Kisuke started.

"What facts do we not know?" Karin snapped, glaring at him. "We have missing people and strange ships have been sighted in the water nearby. They could be kidnappers."

Isshin swallowed hard because that was his biggest fear. He had no way to assuage the girls' fears about where their people, including their brother, had gone. He sighed, not sure what to do.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"We have to move quickly before they move again," Bruno said as he looked through the spyglass at the King Crimson. "Take the boat and try to get on board and off without being spotted. Find out if they're carrying slaves or if they're empty. If they've got slaves on board, come back and we'll sail up to them and take them on fully. This is just an info gathering mission!" Bruno spoke loud enough that everyone could hear him.

Ichigo and Giorno stood at the side of the ship as Leone and Mista got down into the smaller boat, followed by Nnoitra and Starrk. Six people fit in the small lifeboat easily, with it being sized to carry eight, or more if it was packed with people together.

"Ichigo," Bruno said and turned to him as he moved to get in the lifeboat. "I'm only sending you to make sure the people that have been captured don't cause more trouble if they are there. Your job is to convince them to hold on a little longer while we get the Gold Experience over to the King Crimson."

Ichigo nodded. "I understand," he said and jumped over the side.

Giorno sighed, looking at Bruno. "I still don't know if this is such a good idea. We've got no idea who exactly is on that ship."

Nodding, Bruno put his arm around Giorno's shoulders. "I know, but this is about finding out what's on that ship. Get in, get information, and get out. That's your plan. Don't be seen and don't take any chances." Bruno lowered his voice so only Giorno could hear him. "Keep an eye on Ichigo. We don't know his capabilities."

"Sure, you got it," Giorno muttered and got down into the boat with the others.

They took off, rowing toward the King Crimson, with hope that they wouldn't be noticed as anything important as they came up to the larger ship. Before long, they were moored against them, and were climbing up the rope for the lifeboats that hung down the side. Giorno was vaguely impressed at Ichigo's athletic ability as he easily navigated going up. Starrk stayed with the boat while the others snuck aboard. He landed on the deck and crouched down with the others.

"Below decks is where they'll have the slave pens," Giorno whispered hoarsely. "We'll go down, look around for ten minutes, then return up here to the boat. No more!"

"What if we don't find them in ten minutes?" Ichigo asked, glaring at him.

"We'll just have to," Giorno murmured as he stepped forward with Ichigo on his heels. Nnoitra took off another direction, as did Mista and Leone.

They saw a couple crewmen, but they looked to just be running the ship. They had no weapons and were seeing to the daily tasks on the ship. They were easily avoided as they found a stairwell going down. They slowly worked their way down until they reached the bottom. Once there they took off toward the left to see if they could find anything like cells to keep their captures in. They came to a door.

Giorno put his ear to the door and didn't hear anything on the other side. He put his fingers to his lips and nodded to Ichigo. Ichigo stood to the side of the door to wait for Giorno's word on what to do. Giorno nodded to him as he turned the doorknob an eased the door open. He could hear soft breathing inside the room already. He grit his teeth and hoped this wasn't all for naught as he pushed the door the rest of the way open and stepped into the room. Ichigo followed him close behind.

Standing up with wide eyes, Giorno knew they'd found the right room. Inside this room were barred cells, two of them, and inside those cells were five people in each. Ichigo ran up to one of them as Giorno shut the door quietly behind him.

A girl in one of the cells stood up and came to the bars. "Ichigo!"

"Orihime! Chad, Keigo!" he hissed as he got to the cell.

"What are you doing here?" Keigo asked as he got up and came to the bars.

Giorno knew they were running out of time. "Hurry up, we need to get back to the Gold Experience and let them know they've got people on board!"

"Yeah, yeah," Ichigo muttered. "Look, we're going to get you out. I'm on another ship, and we're going to attack them to get you out now that we know you're here."

"Why can't you just let us go now?" Orihime asked. Ichigo had got the attention of everyone in the cells now.

"We need all of our crew to do it this; we'll be back to get you, I promise!" he whispered as he turned back to Giorno.

 _Our crew?_ Giorno arched a brow at Ichigo's association with the ship. He shook his head and motioned him back to the door. They eased the door open again and slipped back out. Giorno thought that the others should be back at the lifeboat already. They headed up the stairs slowly, coming to the door to the deck. Ichigo watched behind them as Giorno looked out the small window in the door to see if anyone was around outside.

Not seeing anyone, Giorno opened the door carefully. He could see the side they had climbed up on, and knew it was just a short walk to get back to it. He didn't see the woman when she grabbed him by the arm. He gasped and was pulled to the side of the door.

"Well, well, what do we have here…" she said, smiling wickedly.

Ichigo came to the doorway and was pushed from behind, falling flat to the floor. Giorno looked behind him to see a guy with a floppy mohawk standing there with a grin. Ichigo pushed himself up to his hands and knees. The guy put his foot in the middle of Ichigo's back and pushed him back down.

"Heh, this one's already branded. Maybe he knows what happened to the Clash." He ground his foot down into Ichigo who gasped out in pain.

"Now, now, Bazzy, be nice because we can't damage him, or they won't be able to sell him," the woman said. Giorno looked at her, an average height woman dressed in a white coat with a white hat on her head. "I'm Bambietta, loves. And you're caught."


	4. Chapter 4

"They're not coming," Nnoitra said quietly. "We've already waited too long."

Mista and Leone exchanged glances. "We can't risk going back up there, especially if they've been caught," Mista pointed out.

"We need to go back and let Bruno know what's happened so we can plan our next move," Starrk said as he started pulling away from the King Crimson.

"I don't think we were spotted, but they're going to know someone was there, that's for certain," Mista said as he kept watch as they moved toward Gold Experience.

Once they returned and everyone got on board, Bruno came out. "Where's Giorno and Ichigo?"

"They didn't come back to the boat. They must have gotten caught," Leone explained. "We didn't see any slave cages, but we know that they have those two now."

"We have to move quickly," Bruno mused. He looked up. "Narancia! What do you see on the deck over there?" he called.

A few seconds later, Narancia responded. "They're busy. There's an increase in the crew on deck. There's a couple without uniforms on deck I don't recognize, though. They're wearing white compared to the blue uniforms the others are wearing. I don't see Secco or Cioccolatta," he said.

"They must have them below decks, then," Bruno said.

"What's the plan, Captain?" Fugo asked from where he leaned against the side.

Bruno was quiet for a moment as he thought. "Alright, here's what we'll do. Nnoitra, Starrk, Leone, Mista, and Nel, you will get on the boat and head to the King Crimson when the deck clears, most likely when their people change shift. We'll take the Gold Experience head on to them to get their attention on us so you can sneak onto the boat. Infiltrate the boat while we occupy them from the outside. Get in, get Giorno, Ichigo, and any people that they've captured out of there as quickly as you can. Neutralize as many of their people as you can in the process."

Everyone began to get ready for the mission. Bruno turned to where Wonderweiss and Lilynette were standing on the deck.

"You too start making preparations in case we get boarded. Set up some traps and put some caltrops bags near the staircases. Make sure everyone knows about them," he said and turned back to the others.

Lilynette patted the gun on her hip, already there when Starrk had left on the mission. She looked at Wonderweiss and grinned. "Let's set up some surprises," she said.

Wonderweiss returned her grin and excitedly followed her back down into the ship.

Bruno stood where he could just see the other ship in the distance. He hoped Giorno would be alright without them being able to get to them right away. He was smart, though. Surely, he would be able to hold them off from bringing any harm to him or Ichigo. Bruno knew that they wouldn't kill Ichigo because he was already branded, but he worried about Giorno if they realized who he was. His connection with Dio or one of his brothers might prove problematic…

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo and Giorno were soon being dragged to another room separate from where the others were. One of the crewmen opened a cell and threw Giorno in first, then picked up a collar from the table outside and snapped it around Ichigo's neck before he was tossed into the cell.

As soon as the cell door shut, a pair of men came into the room. The first on had green hair and piercing green eyes, and the other wore some sort of full body leather costume that only revealed his eyes.

Giorno stood at the bars and growled. "Cioccolatta and Secco."

"I see you know me already," Cioccolatta said with a smirk. "You must be from the Gold Experience. Tell me, who are you?"

"I'm not telling you who I am," he said. "You can guess."

"Ah, I see I get to show off my little device first, then," he responded. He held up a small remote and pushed a button.

Almost immediately, Ichigo stumbled to the floor and gagged loudly. He dropped to his hands and knees, swaying even as he sat there like that. He looked like he was trying to get his breath and stay up on his hands and knees even though it was like he couldn't get a firm grasp on the floor. He lost the fight with trying to stay upright and collapsed on the floor for a moment. He managed to push himself up to his knees again but it was with great effort.

"Ichigo! What did you do to him?" Giorno yelled, dropping to his knees beside Ichigo on the ground.

"Isn't it a nice little device? Intense vertigo and nausea." He clicked remote and Ichigo collapsed into a panting pile on the floor. "Doesn't permanently damage the slaves and is extremely effective. Now, who are you again?"

Giorno stood up as Ichigo managed to sit up on the floor. "Giorno Giovanna," he said finally.

"Ah, yes, I know of you. You're one of Lord Dio's bastard children, aren't you? Don't you have a brother, Ungalo is his name, I believe, who runs Luxor? And another, Rikiel I think, that runs Cyprus. Yes, you're well connected." Cioccolatta smiled coldly at them. "You're to valuable to put for sale."

Giorno glared at him, not sure what to say to that. Finally, he managed to come up with something. "Look, I have nothing to do with any of my family. So, you're out of luck there," he told them. It wasn't really a lie. He had only met his father once when he came of age and seen his brothers on one occasion.

"We'll have to keep them both in here," Secco said. "They can't be harmed."

"What are you planning to do with us?" Giorno asked, glaring through the bars at the pair.

"Well, him, he's going to be sold at the slave auctions with the others in the slave pens. You, you're special because you're Dio's son. I'm sure Diavolo will want to use that to his advantage," Cioccolatta said with a smile.

"Dio doesn't even know me!" Giorno exclaimed, feeling frustration at not being heard. "He left my mother after she got pregnant with me! He doesn't care about me at all!"

"You say that, but I bet he will care once someone like Diavolo has you. And if you don't end up being of any use, well, then you can be marked and sold just as easily." Cioccolatta gave him a cold smile.

"What happened to the Clash?" Secco asked, kneeling beside the cage and looking in.

"Yes, what happened to Tiziano and Squalo?" Cioccolatta asked, glancing from Secco back into the cell at them. Ichigo had just managed to get to his feet with Giorno's help.

"What makes you think I know that?" Giorno said through clenched teeth. He couldn't give up all the information he knew.

"I don't believe you," Cioccolatta said and held the remote to the collar again.

"I'm telling you; we don't know what happened to the Clash!" Giorno said again.

He pressed the button and Ichigo grabbed tightly to Giorno, trying to keep himself from falling down again. He buried his head in Giorno's shoulder and let out what was perhaps the most pathetic sounding moan of discomfort that Giorno had ever heard.

"Stop! They're dead!" he said and Cioccolatta let go of the remote, causing Ichigo to cling to him and pant for breath.

Cioccolatta stared at him. "The Clash was after Trish, Diavolo's daughter. Was she on board?"

Giorno quickly decided to try and leave Trish out of things if he could. "They had Ichigo. We saved him and killed them from the Gold Experience."

"Now, see, that's not true," Cioccolatta said, holding up the remote again. "I know that because the only thing the Clash was after was Trish. If they had picked up a slave along the way, they would have had her too. So, I ask again, was she on board?"

He felt Ichigo clinging to him still and he didn't know what to do. If they found out about Trish being on the Gold Experience, they might try to attack them. But then, he was sure Bruno would take the Gold Experience and try to get them back anyway, so would it matter?

"That bitch isn't worth hiding," Cioccolatta said, narrowing his eyes at her. "The boss wants her alive, and that's all that matters, so don't fret. I won't kill her. He probably will, though," he explained.

"Leave Trish alone!" Ichigo managed to growl out and Giorno sighed. Well, there went that idea.

"Oh, does the little slave boy get turned on by the pink haired whore?" Cioccolatta said with a smirk.

Ichigo lunged toward him only to end up stumbling to the floor as he used the collar on him again. He smiled as he tried not to vomit, gagging and coughing as the intensity seemed to increase.

"Stop! That's enough! You have your answers!" Giorno said, moving over and kneeling beside Ichigo again. "There's no need anymore!"

"Oh, but it's fun," Cioccolatta said with a smirk. He let go of the button on the remote though, and Ichigo leaned into Giorno, panting and holding onto him. Giorno was angry at them, and he wasn't really sure what was making him so angry.

"What if they come for them?" Secco said, standing up, his leather outfit creaking a little as he moved.

"I'm sure they will, now won't they, Giorno?" Cioccolatta said, looking down at him. "They won't leave two of their people on my ship, now will they?" He stared for a minute. "The question is, what exactly will they do? And when will they do it?"

Ichigo had recovered enough that he was sitting up on his own and glaring at them through the bars. Giorno didn't say anything. He just stared at them for a moment until Cioccolatta smiled and turned to Secco.

"Let's go, I think we've got all we need out of these two," he said.

Secco nodded, leading the way out the door for both of them. Giorno watched them go and then looked at Ichigo. He still looked ill and it was obvious that whatever effect that thing had, it didn't go away.

"Here, let's get you to the cot," he said, helping him up and to the bed. Ichigo didn't argue, he just went with him.

"So, this collar sucks, can you get it off?" Ichigo asked as he sat down, still wavering a little.

Giorno checked it. "It's got a locking mechanism. I can't get it off," he said, frowning.

"Figures," Ichigo muttered and crossed his arms over his stomach. "I've been sick before, but I've never felt anything like that.

"We just have to wait. Bruno won't let us stay on here," Giorno tried to assure him.

"I hope you're right and they can do something. I really don't want to spend my life as a slave in some strange land I don't know," he said with a sigh.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Giorno said, putting an arm around him and sighing.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

"What are you doing?" Anne asked as Hazamada began to fiddle with the lock of the door. He turned to the young girl and smiled, holding up a fountain pen. "Ah, I see," she said.

"I think I might be able to pick the lock," he said.

He fiddled with the lock for a while and everyone heard it "pop". They all too a breath but the door to the outside swung open and Hazamada gasped, pulling the door closed and holding it shut as the woman with the white hat came into the room again. She had with her a man with dark hair and a scar over his eye. He looked like he was very bored at being dragged around by her.

"Oh, the rats are awake and up! I know! You think someone's going to save you, don't you?" she asked. "You think those two are going back to their little ship and coming back for you. Well, you're wrong." She smiled at them. No one moved or said anything, far more concerned they were about to find out that the lock had been opened than what they were currently saying.

"You caught them?" Orihime said, a little tearful sounding. Hazamada looked over at her and hoped she didn't let on that anything was going on.

"Of course, we did! We're not idiots," she snarled, going to the other cage and glaring at her through the bars. "They were idiots, thinking they could come on this boat and not get caught."

"Someone out there knows where we are," Keigo said, standing up and coming forward. "You won't get away with it."

"Oh, we already have. There's nowhere to go out there. Just water. So, even if you were to get out of your little cages, it wouldn't matter one bit."

Hazamada clutched the metal in his hand, keeping it closed as much as possible. She couldn't notice. She couldn't know that they'd already gotten free. He was sure he could pick the other lock, and maybe if the two that had come to rescue them were in another cage, he could get them out, too. It was just a matter of waiting for the right moment after these two had left.

"You just wait!" Anne yelled and suddenly ran at the door, almost running into it. Hazamada felt it shiver in his grip. "We'll get out and you won't be able to do anything about it!"

Bambietta snorted. "You are going to do what, little girl?" she said. "It doesn't mean anything. Come on, Cang Du. Let's go back up top," she said, turning her back on them.

As soon as her back was turned, Anne seemed to see her opportunity and ran at the cell door, knocking it clear of Hazamada's hand. He gasped, falling back onto the floor as Anne flew at Bambietta's back. The Arrancar, who had just been watching until then, ran out the door and tackled Cang Due to the ground, landing a surprisingly fast punch to the back of his head. It seemed in Anne's exit from the cell, she'd knocked Bambietta in the head, sending her unconscious.

"Anne!" Hazamada said as he came out of the cell with Aya and Ayana following him.

"Get the other one open!" Anne hissed as she tried to pull Bambietta's body into the cell she just vacated.

Hazamada went to work on the other lock as Illfordt helped drag the two unconscious people into the cell and pulled it closed. He managed the lock after a few minutes of trying, then went over and found it easier to lock the cell back than it had been to unlock it. He didn't know how much more stress the pen he had could take before it broke though, so he tried to be careful. Once they had everyone secured, they stood outside the cell.

Kugo spoke up first. "Alright, do you think you can get those other two out of their cell too?"

Hazamada held up the pen and nodded. "I think maybe I can do it one more time before it breaks. It would be better if we could find someone with a key."

"We may not be able to do that. Ladies, how about we go and try to find a way off the ship while Hazamada here takes Illfordt to try and release those other two," Kugo said, glancing over at Chad. "Chad, you and I can keep the ladies safe."

"I'll go with you too," Keigo said, standing up straight.

"I want to go with Hazamada and find those other two!" Anne complained, crossing her arms in a huff.

Kugo exchanged looks with Riruka. She put a hand on Anne's shoulder. "I think the smaller their group is, the better. We need strong fighters on our group too, because I don't think some of us are much of fighters."

Anne looked skeptical for a moment but eventually nodded. "Alright," she muttered.

"We split up and meet up on deck. Try to be stealthy, but our priority is to find a way off this ship," Kugo said, looking around. "We know there's another ship out there, so we have somewhere to go if we can get into lifeboats or something."

Hazamada nodded. "Alright, we'll get the other two."

They separated at the door, Kugo's group heading toward the end of the hall and Hazamada and Illfordt heading down deeper below deck to see if they could find any other places where people would be held. It took a few tries, but they found a room where they heard movement inside. Hazamada opened the door to see another cell with two people inside it. He and Illfordt rushed inside and shut the door behind them.

"Hey, you're one of the ones in the cells! How did you get here?" the blond said as he came to the cell door. The redhead didn't look like he was feeling too well and was lying on the single bunk in the cell.

"I'm Hazamada, and this is Illfordt," he said and held up the fountain pen. Illfordt stayed by the door to listen for anyone as Hazamada went to work on the cell lock. "I'm pretty good with locks."

"I'm Giorno, and that's Ichigo," the blond said and gestured to the other one who had managed to sit up and look at them. "We have ship nearby."

"Yeah, that's why I decided to try and get us out. At lease if there's another ship out there, there's somewhere to go," he said.

After a few tense moments, Hazamada managed the lock. He pulled it open. Giorno went over and helped Ichigo get to his feet and helped steady him as they headed to the door.

"Where are the others?" Giorno whispered as they got out in the hallway.

"Trying to find a safe way up to the deck. They were going to look for a way to get to lifeboats or something," Hazamada answered as they came to the door.

Giorno took the lead and listened at the door, frowning because he could hear a commotion on the other side.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Chad and Kugo led the others through the hall until they encountered a stairwell. Kugo went up, listening carefully at the door for a minute. Not hearing anything, he opened it and found it was a side exit. He didn't see anyone. He motioned for the others to follow him through the door. Once they were all on the deck, he moved to check over the side and saw no lifeboats. Damn, they must have been on the other side of the ship.

"Come on," he whispered and led them toward the back of the boat.

From the other side, they heard a voice, "What do we have here? The rats have escaped their cages, Driscoll!"

Kugo turned to see the one with the pink mohawk standing there, he thought Bambietta had called him Bazz, with a taller and very built man. Keigo was closest to them, and he glanced at the girls before stepping forward in an attempt to punch the first one. This failed miserably, and Bazz caught his fist. He punched him soundly, dropping him to the deck. He didn't get a chance to do much else because Chad moved and punched him hard enough to throw him completely back into Driscoll.

Chad moved closer between them and the girls, taking a blow from Driscoll in the process. Kugo managed to get through the girls to get up to them and landed a punch on the already out of it Bazz. Impressively, Chad was holding his own with the big Driscoll. Once Bazz dropped to the ground, Kugo rounded on the other side of Driscoll and it didn't take long for him to go down between him and Chad.

"There's a boat coming!" Aya said from the side of the ship.

Kugo looked to see another large ship coming their way. "That must be the other one those two were talking about.

"Let's get these two out of the way," Chad said and grabbed Driscoll to drag him into the door leading below.

After they'd stowed both of them, they were ready to try and get to the other side of the ship. Kuro took the lead again, trusting Chad with the back. They had no idea how many people were even on the ship, so they had to be careful. He looked around onto the main part of the deck and saw mostly workers. They were doing typical tasks on the deck of a boat this size. He counted four men. They didn't look like specialized fighters or anything. Except one, he noted as he saw a man in a white coat as opposed to the dark blue uniforms of the others. The two they just took down had been in white too. He frowned, wondering if they were a group together.

He turned back to the others and wondered what to do from here on. He was still thinking about it when he heard a cracking sound nearby. He frowned, looking back on the deck to see that the dark-haired guy in white had fallen down after a container of soapy water for swabbing the deck had been knocked over somehow. He heard another crack and realized he was hearing a gunshot from somewhere.

From the other side of the deck he heard noise and took the opportunity to dash across with the others. He hurried them along and everyone ran across the deck with him. They got to the other side just in time to see a very tall, thin man with black hair and an eye patch climbing over the side.

"We're prisoners!" he announced as he came running forward.

"Already broke out?" the tall man answered as he helped a woman with sea green hair come over the side.

"I'm Kugo. We were in the cells down below deck, but one of the others had a pen. He managed to pick the locks to our cages. He went to get the other two that came from your ship," Kugo told him.

From nearby, a guy in blue came up to them. "Neutralized a couple of them," he said, putting a pistol away in his pants.

"Here, take these back, we gotta find Giorno and Ichigo still," the other one said.

"We can take one of the lifeboats and make it in one trip," the woman said.

"First let's take the ship," the tall one said and headed around to the front of the boat.

Kugo wasn't going to leave without everyone though. He was about to head for the door downstairs when it opened to reveal the blond with the curls they had seen before. He came up helping the one with the loud orange hair followed by Hazamada and Illfordt.

"Well, the gang's all here," the one with the gun said, smiling. "Hey Giorno."

"Mista, Bruno brought the Gold Experience over?" Giorno asked.

"Yeah, he's keeping them occupied so we could sneak on board. Nnoitra went to make sure we have the deck secure. Starrk and Leone are waiting in the boat still. Nel," he said, turning to the woman with green hair. "You want to get everyone on the boats, and we can take them over to our boat? I'll see if Nnoi needs any help."

"Sounds good," Nel said and proceeded to do just that.

Before long, everyone was loaded in the boats and they set off for the Gold Experience. The checked around the boat, but somehow Cioccolatta and Secco had eluded them. Of course, their priority was to get those that had been taken to safety. They didn't notice until the King Crimson was moving away that anyone had taken control of the ship. By that point, they were otherwise occupied with finding out where everyone was going to go.

"King Crimson is moving away!" Narancia called from the crow's nest.

Bruno glanced over, and back at the ten people he had to get home. "Let them go. We'll figure out what to do about them later. We've got to get these people back where they came from now."

Once they got everyone sorted, they headed back to the coast on the side of Morioh. As they came in, they got Hazamada, Ayana, Aya, and Anne loaded onto the boat to go back to the shore. Starrk once again took the small boat and came back shortly. Ichigo watched them go, knowing that they would be putting in near Karakura next.

"You don't look happy," Keigo said as he came up beside him.

Ichigo turned to him and tried to smile. "Why do you say that? We're going home."

"Uh huh, that's why we should be happy, but you're moping around like you're going to jail, not back home," he said, leaning on the side of the ship.

Ichigo swallowed hard and looked back onto the ship at the others before he looked out on the shoreline again. "I don't know that I want to go home yet."

"What do you mean?" Keigo asked, frowning and turning toward him. "Don't tell me you're smitten with that pink haired girl or something? The one with green hair's too old for you, by the way."

"Nah, nothing like that. I just…that girl, Trish, her father, he's going to keep coming to Japan. He's going to keep trying to take over places and run them. Someone's gotta stop him, you know?" Ichigo said, chewing his lip a second. "These people are good people and I think they're going to do everything they can to make sure Trish is safe. And that's gonna mean stopping her father from getting to her."

"You can't be serious? That's so much bigger than just you, though, man, I mean, come on! Let them handle it. You can go back home and back to—"

"To finding washed up junk on the shore?" Ichigo finished for him. "I can make a difference with them. I can help change things and protect my family from this Diavolo. He's got his eye on Japan. He might not be back right away, but his people have seen how good we're doing, and it's a new place for him to take over."

"Ichigo, man, there's lots of space between here and there. He's not going to come knocking tomorrow morning even if he does succeed in taking over more places, you know," Keigo reminded him.

Ichigo sighed again, leaning over and staring over the side of the ship into the dark ocean below. "But he will come. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not in ten years. But he will. And how can I just let Trish fight for her life alone? If it weren't for me, maybe she would have escaped those guys that were after her."

They were quiet for a while as the ship headed toward Karakura. Eventually, it was time to eat and everyone went down below. Ichigo picked at his food, still thinking about what he was going to do. He wanted to go home, of course, but what he told Keigo was true. He wanted to protect everyone from this Diavolo as much as he could and picking up pieces of dead technology in the water wasn't going to do that.

By the time they were going to set the boat off for Karakura, he'd made up his mind. As everyone was getting into the boat to go ashore with Starrk, Ichigo found Bruno.

"Can I talk to you?" he asked him. Giorno was leaning against the wall nearby, and that alone made Ichigo a bit nervous.

"Sure, but don't take too long. The boat's almost ready to take you home," Bruno said, smiling at him.

"That's just it, though, I don't want to leave the Gold Experience," he said, looking at Bruno very seriously.

"What? You've got a chance to go back home!" Giorno said coming over to him. "Why in the world would you want to stay?"

"I just do okay!" he said, turning to Giorno, face reddening a little. "I want to be a part of this ship's crew!"

"That's just ridiculous! Why would you choose that over going home?" Giorno said, frowning at him.

"Now, now, Giorno, if he wants to stay on board, we should let him," Bruno said with a smirk.

Giorno turned to Bruno and stared for a minute. "You aren't kidding," he said, noticing the obvious look on Bruno's face. "You mean that."

"Of course," Bruno said, nodding. "He's proved he's a capable fighter, and he can handle himself, and with a little training, I think he'd make a good ship's crewman."

Giorno stared at Bruno for a minute longer. "I leave it up to you. You're the captain."

"Of your boat," Bruno stated.

Ichigo looked between the two of them, wondering what exactly that meant. "Please, I can do it. I can be a helpful member of the crew. I know I can. I just want to help with Diavolo."

Giorno sighed, rubbing his eyes for a moment. "We haven't even planned on what we are doing about Diavolo."

"Going after him, of course," Fugo said as he walked by. "He's going to try to kill Trish, and the rest of us, now."

"He's gonna keep coming for people out here," Ichigo told him. "And I have to protect my dad and my sisters from him as much as I can."

"This isn't a pleasure cruise," Giorno said sharply, looking at Ichigo.

"I know that!" Ichigo retorted.

Giorno huffed another sigh. "Alright. But if you cause problems…" he trailed off.

Ichigo smiled and ran over where Keigo was about to go down to the boat. "I'm staying," he told him.

"What do I tell your family?" he asked, wide-eyed.

"Tell them the truth. About this Diavolo and what he's trying to do and how I want to help take care of it. I'll be back. I promise that!" Ichigo said.

Keigo shook his head. "Alright, I'll tell them. You be careful, and come back," he said, giving Ichigo a quick hug before going down to the boat.

Before long, the boat was ready and Starrk took the rest to the shore. Only Illfordt remained on the ship, but it turned out he had a brother that was on the Metallica, another salvage ship like the Gold Experience. He'd opted to stay on board until they encountered them again. Ichigo watched the boat pull onto the shore and smiled. He was doing something with his life. He was going to make a difference. He nearly jumped when he felt someone put a hand on his shoulder.

"Sorry," came Trish's voice.

"No, it's okay," Ichigo said, smiling at her. "Just didn't see you."

"You sure about this? Staying with the ship with that mark on your neck?" she said.

Ichigo reached up an rubbed the still sore brand. He nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure."


End file.
